Shrinking City Government

continued

That would be fine with field operations. "What I want is more funding," says Craig Hupy. "I don't see the need to add more bodies." He'd rather see more capital investment in the city's roads, sidewalks, water and sewer mains, and parks--the aging infrastructure that his hard-working crews maintain.

"Though if we added more bodies, it would allow city parks to look more like U-M parks," suggests Warba. "Things would look snappier."

Hupy isn't interested in going there. "Those are policy decisions," he tells his second-in-command. "We do what council tells us to do."

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Sue McCormick's Challenge

While Ann Arbor started shrinking its staff more than ten years ago, Detroit resisted making cuts. Now almost out of cash, the city faces either an onerous consent decree or an outright takeover by a state emergency manager. So why would Sue McCormick leave her secure job as Ann Arbor's public services administrator to run the scandal-plagued Detroit Water and Sewerage Department?